From: democrats@fail.us

XPost: pa.politics, sac.politics, alt.politics.liberalism
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Philadelphia (CNN)Armed with flashlights, firefighters went from
car to car early Wednesday morning, looking for passengers
inside an Amtrak train that derailed and tipped over in
Philadelphia -- killing at least five.

Another 50 were hospitalized, including six in critical
condition, authorities said.

"It is an absolute, disastrous mess," Philadelphia Mayor Michael
Nutter of the crash site. "I've never seen anything like this in
my life."

The Amtrak Northeast Regional Train 188 was traveling from
Washington to New York when it derailed in the Port Richmond
neighborhood of Philadelphia about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. The impact
tore cars apart and left the engine a mangled mess.

The northeast corridor is the busiest passenger line in the
country, and the train was carrying 238 passengers and 5 crew
members.

The cause wasn't immediately known.

"We do not know what happened here. We do not know why it
happened," Nutter said. There was no indication the derailment
was a result of an impact with another train, he said.

So far, there's nothing to indicate the incident was an act of
terrorism.

Early Wednesday morning, investigators in orange vests walked up
and down the track, especially near a part where it curves.

The area of the crash is known as Frankford Junction. In 1943,
it was the site of one of the nation's deadliest train accidents
when The Congressional Limited crashed, killing 79 people.

"Until the second of impact, everything was normal," passenger
Daniel Wetrin told CNN. "Then it was just chaos."

The moment of impact
Jeremy Wladis was in the very last car, eating.

"The next thing you know, the train starts doing funny things,
and it gradually starts getting worse and worse," he said.

Then, things started flying -- phones, laptops. "Then people."

"There were two people in the luggage rack above my head. Two
women, catapulted [there]."

Firefighters arrived to find seven cars and the train's engine
either turned over or upside down. Most of the passengers were
able to escape, climbing out of windows to safety. Crews had to
cut through the cars to get to others.

'Please make it stop'
Janna D'Ambrisi was in the second-to-last car, reading her book
when she felt the jolt.

"Suddenly it felt like we were going a little too fast around a
curve," she said.

The car she was in started to tip and she was thrown onto
another girl.

"People started to fall on us," D'Ambrisi said.

"I just held on to her leg and sort of bowed my head and I was
kind of praying, 'Please make it stop.'"

Fortunately, her car didn't tip over and she was able to make it
out safely.

Determining why
At a news conference around 1 a.m., Mayor Nutter said he
couldn't say whether all the passengers had been accounted
Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board will
arrive at the scene in the morning, and the investigation into
what happened will begin.

The deadliest accident in Amtrak's history took place in
September 1993, when a tugboat smashed into a river bridge,
causing it to collapse as an Amtrak train was passing over. The
accident in Mobile, Alabama, killed 47 people.

Amtrak shut down rail service between Philadelphia and New York
City Tuesday night. It set up a special number for those seeking
information on friends and family aboard the train: 1-800-523-
9101.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/13/us/philadelphia-amtrak-train-
derailment/

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